A proposal for integrating Serious Games made with Unity3D into Moodle coursesFrank Poschner, Dieter...

Integrating Serious Games made with Unity3Dinto Moodle courses

Frank Poschner

Department of Computer Engineering

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

University of Kassel

Frank Poschner / Integrating Serious Games into Moodle courses

Agenda

• Serious Games – a short overview

• Motivation

• Technical background

• An approach for an integration

• User assessment

• Summary


Explanation on Serious Games

• Games already exist for a very long time

• Reasons to play:

– Entertainment

– Profit

– Acquirement of skills

• Training games for consolidation of knowledge

• By having fun at games and repetition

→ easier gathering of knowledge



Learning Games, Serious Games:

– Games with serious background

– On the computer: simulators and computer games



• Fields of application:

– Medicine

– Health care

– Military applications

– Safety

• Different kinds of games

→ in our case: training in virtual environments


Training simulations

• E.g. firefighters and cycling simulations


Training simulations

• Motivation of firefighters:

– Saving time of presence

– Training of scenarios that would be difficult to train in reality

– Preparation of firefighter training on the computer

– Time-independent practice

• Communication and Cooperation via network

→ Decentralised learning


Theory in Moodle

• Theoretical basis of fields of application

– Experts can define rules and exercises

– Knowledge provided by education or literature

• Example: Working rules for firefighters

– Theoretical content

– Tests with questions


Theory in Moodle ( German example )


Link to Moodle

• Features of Moodle are also useful for Serious Games:

– User profiles

– roles (teacher, student)

– Results and Grader report

– Etc.

→ Why not combining theory content and training simulations in Moodle?


Game development (Unity3D)

Elements of a game:

– 3D models

– Logic (scripts / programming)

– Avatars

– AI

– Physics, particle systems etc.

– Important: Export as web player application

→ for use in a browser


Requirements

• Game can be started out of Moodle

• Game is treated like an activity or question type

• User date should be known in the game

• Storing the player's result in Moodle

• Teacher can review the results


An approach for an integration

Using the SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) – model for submitting the data

Specified by the ADL ( Advanced Distributed Learning) Initiative

Moodle Docs:

„SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is a collection of specifications that enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of web-based learning content. SCORM content can be delivered to learners via any SCORM- compliant Learning Management System (LMS) using the same version of SCORM. “

Examples: Camtasia, iSpring


SCORM overview


SCORM and Unity3D

• Using the standard in the game's code

• Manager-entity collects data from the LMS or for sending it to the LMS

– GetLearnerName()

– SetBookmark(location)

– SetNormalizedScore(score)

– SetSatisfaction(success)

• Awarding of points, aborting the game etc. must be included in the game code


SCORM and Moodle

• Teacher gets the game as a package

• Creates a new activity: SCORM package

• Some necessary settings have to be set


Game communicating with LMS


Assessment in / for Moodle

• Assessment: points-based in Moodle

• How to assess the player?

– Reached the goal: full score

→ only important to reach the goal

– Single actions correct

→ maximum reached when all actions were correct

– Wrong actions

• Abortion and new start in the game (points?)

• Abortion of the whole simulation

– Time-based (Abortion or less points)


An example application


Outlook

• Multiplayer for learning in groups

• Own question types for game packages

• Further evaluation functions for evaluating player behavior and mapping in Moodle

→ GameAnalytics

• Teachers can create own scenarios and even own games

( modules )


Contact

Thank you for your attention!

Frank Poschner

[email protected]

A proposal for integrating Serious Games made with Unity3D into Moodle coursesFrank Poschner, Dieter...

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